#3 Maryland strikes quickly in 5-2 win over #2 St. Johns
COLLEGE PARK,MDPaced by the fastest of starts, Maryland took control of Friday’s home showdown with St. Johns early and went on to a 5-2 victory before 3,332 noisy fans at Ludwig Field.
Jason Garey and Abe Thompson led the Maryland effort with 3 and 2 goals respectively, with Garey scoring in the game’s opening minute to start the Terps (3-0, 3rd in the adidas NSCAA poll) on their way.
Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski said his team used the memory of last year’s semifinal loss to the Red Storm for part of its motivation.
”I didn’t have to do a lot of inspiring this week. This was a focused group that has been looking forward to playing this game for a while,” Cirovski said. “It was an inspired performance with two forwards combine the way Abe and Jason combined today. We met the challenge and did all the things necessary to be a great team.”
Cirovski said the style of the match, with 36 shots on goal and tons of chances both ways, is ideal.
”This is the way the game should be played,” he said. “36 shots, 7 goals, only 25 fouls. There were two teams to playing good, attacking soccer. This was a joy. This is the environment I want to see in the Final Four. Environment, people into the game and great soccer. This is where we must take college soccer and I’m proud that we’re doing it at our place.”
St. Johns (2-1, 2nd nationally) began the match in a 4-5-1 with Matt Groenwald the lone forward and Maryland started in a 4-4-2, with four across in the midfield.
It took lesss than a minute for Maryland to earn a dream start. A.J. Godbolt won a ball at midfield, ran at the Red Storm defense and sent a pass to Abe Thompson whose quick touch put Jason Garey through on goal and the junior striker buried the chance in the back of the net for a 1-0 Terrapin lead.
St. Johns quickly worked for an equalizer, but Patrik Engstrom’s dangerous cross in the 5th minute was well cleared by Maryland freshman Eric Brunner.
In the 12th minute, Engstrom put a header from a corner over the bar, and Groenwald fired a long range shot that Noah Palmer had to scamper to gather. Bill Hole’s pass down the wing put Andre Schmid in good position, but the subsequent cross ended the move for the Red Storm.
Maryland nearly made it 2-0 in the 14th minute when an exquisite cross from Stephen King found Thompson, whose glancing header went just wide of the near post. A few minutes later a Thompson back heel created havoc in the St. Johns box before Sam Matthews cleared the danger.
The reprieve was only temporary after Chris Lancos sent over a cross, that was chested down by Domenic Mediate, straight to Thompson who drilled a rocket past St. Johns keeper Bill Gaudette to make it 2-0 in the 17th minute.
Pressure leads to third tally
St. Johns coach Dave Masur put Ashley Kozicki on in a bid to generate offense, but it was Maryland who found the net within a minute of the switch, when Gaudette’s attempted clearance from wide of the net was deflected by Gearey, leaving Thompson Thompson only to blast into the open net for a 3-0 Terp lead in the 22nd minute.
The Terps missed two chances to make it FOUR within a minute of the third, with Gaudette saving well from a Mediate drive, and Thompson blasting well over after being set up again by Godbolt.
A steal by Gotsmanov led to a 1 on 1 for Groenwald in theMaryland box, but freshman defender Eric Brunner tackled well to end the threat.
St. Johns showed signs of life however, as Schmid flicked on a goal kick and Groenwald displayed a tremendous piece of skill to flick the ball past Maryland defender Chris Lancos, raced to the ball and beat Palmer with a clinical finish to make it 3-1 at 25 minutes.
Thompson had a header on goal in the 32nd minute from a Bertz throw in, but Gaudette was alert to grab the ball. On the other end Schmid won a ball in the box and sent in a cross but Lancos cleared the danger.
Ian Rodway sent a wonderful 40-yard through ball to release Mediate, whose initial shot was blocked, The attacking midfielder won it back and ended up teeing up the ball for Jason Arnold whose shot was well saved by Gaudette. Groenwald put in some great work before his drive on the other end of the field was deflected wide just before halftime.
2nd Half
St. Johns threatened early in the 2nd half, with Ashley Kozicki whipping a cross into the middle that Jason Arnold cleared, but only after Andre Schmid had missed a chance at a header.
But by the 51st minute it was more of the same for Maryland as Mediate put in a terrific bit of work on the left, beating two defenders before setting up Jason Garey for his second goal of the night and a 4-1 lead.
Stephen King and Garey conspired to give Godbolt an easy chance in the 57th minute, but the hard-working winger put it wide.
St. Johns’ hard work paid off in the 60th minute when Kozicki played the ball into the box for Schmid, whose back was to the goal. The Californian cleverly turned Lancos and fired home to make it 4-2.
Spectators didn’t have time to formulate thoughts on whether the Red Storm might get back into the game, before Garey got his hat trick, doing some great work in the right before firing home, the assist coming from Godbolt to make it 5-2. The goal marked the first time St. Johns had give up more than four goals since 1984.
Garey should have made it 4 after ghosting in on the right a minute later to get on the end of a Thompson cross, which he put wide. Another chance for Garey’s fourth came on a poor back header from St. Johns, which Garey got to and headed over Gaudette but also over the bar.
Another Maryland chance came within inches of crossing the line, when King, Geary andThompson worked together to set up Godbolt, but Jeff Carroll headed off the line for St. Johns.
Erwin Diaz set up Mediate for a breakaway in the closing minutes, but substitute goalkeeper Jason Landers came off his line well to force Mediate’s chip wide.
St. Johns coach Dave Masur said while his back line had difficulty, the blame for the loss goes around.
”Thompson, Garey and Domenic caused trouble all night, but we caused some trouble for ourselves. If you look at the game it could have been 9-5 and it showed we had some Achilles heels and some hiccups in the back with some of our younger players,” Masur said. “That kind of undid us, but in fairness to them some of those chances came from missed balls in the midfield and up front. What’s going to be key to improve and be more solid and not give away as many chances as we gave away tonight.”
Godbolt admitted he was surprised at the amount of space he and Mediate had to run on the outside.
”They high pressure just like we do and I think our pressure got to them,” he said. “It put them on their heels early on and with the atmosphere it got real easy. It just opened up.”
Garey said he and Thompson have developed a good understanding up front, and quickly.
”It was magical. I’ve never been able to play much with Abe and we’re already clicking,” he said. “We know each other pretty well now and it’s magical to watch.”
St. Johns midfielder Simone Salinno had a difficult first half, his first touch and distribution letting him down often. Fellow midfielder Jeff Carroll on the other hand, was instrumental in settling the team down after it fell behind, and helped his team win a much greater share of the possession in the second half..
St. Johns will play Penn State here Sunday, with Mayland facing Georgetown.
In the evening’s first match, Penn State defeated Georgetown 3-2 in overtime on a Chad Severs golden goal.
Match Summary
St. Johns Starting Lineup
GK: Bill Gaudette
Defenders: Patrik Engstrom, Georgios Spanos, Andrei Gotsmanov, Bill Hole
Midfielders: Matt Groenwald, Andre Schmid, Sam Matthews, Simone Salinno, Jeff Carroll
Forwards: Matt Groenwald
Substitutes: Ashley Kozicki (20th for Steven Old) Chris Corcoran (28th for Billy Hole); Georgios Spanos (50th for Andrei Gotsmanov); Ben Shuleva (75 for Jeff Carroll); Jeff Stepan (75 for Steven Old); Justin Abel (78 for Simone Salinno); Chris Carroll (84th for xx; Jason Landers (84th for Bill Gaudette); .
Scoring: Matt Groenwald (26), Andre Schmid (60) (
Cards: Andrei Gotsmanov
Maryland Starting Lineup
Goalkeeper: Noah Palmer
Defenders: Michael Dello-Russo; Kenney Bertz; Chris Lancos; Eric Brunner
Midfielders: Ian Rodway, Stephen King, A.J. Godbolt, Domenic Mediate
Forwards: Abe Thompson; Jason Garey
Substitutes: Erwin Diaz (29th for A.J. Godbolt; 65th for Kenny Bertz); Jason Arnold (35th for Stephen King); Jason Arnold (79th for JasonGarey); Spencer Darman Allen (82nd for Stephen King); Kevin Reiman (84th for Abe Thompson); David Glaudemans (88th for Michael Dello Russo).
Scoring: Jason Garey (1), Abe Thompson (17), Abe Thompson (21), Jason Garey (50), Jason Garey (61)
Cards: None
ST. JOHN'S UNIV-undefeated in 8
